Plan to increase phone charges face hurdles
Plan to increase phone charges face hurdles
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government's plan to further increase telephone charges this year may face some hurdles as the government has yet to meet all the conditions required by the House of Representatives.
The Ministry of Transportation, which also handles the communications sector, launched on Thursday the long-awaited Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Body (BRTI), a set of requirements made by lawmakers to manage the phone rate hike policy.
The Director General of Post and Telecommunications (at the ministry), Djamhari Sirat, told reporters on Thursday, after the launching of BRTI that he would immediately propose a hike but he fell short of elaborating on the size of the increase or the timing.
However, in order to initiate the plan the government may first have to discuss it with the House Commission IV for telecommunications.
"In the last hearing between the government and the House, we agreed that the hike would be gradual, and that the government should first discuss it with us," Amri Husni Siregar, Deputy Chairman of the commission, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
He added the House would first ascertain the independence of the BRTI, before agreeing to hike telephone charges.
In addition, the government and the fixed-line telephone companies had not yet fulfilled all conditions, he said.
"We required the government and the companies to widen telephone networks in rural areas," he said. "According to reports it seems that the network in rural areas is still widely untapped."
The government had intended to raise phone charges by an average of 15 percent, as part of a three-year 45.79 percent tariff hike program. The first 15 percent hike was implemented earlier last year. But the second tariff hike was canceled -- together with plans to raise fuel and electricity prices -- due to widespread public protest.
The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) also opposed the government's plan.
YLKI official, Sudaryatmo, was quoted by Antara as saying that: since the government and telephone companies have failed to develop a new telecommunications network in rural areas, lawmakers should reject the tariff hike proposal.
The proposition of the tariff hike plan was justified by the government as a way of accessing funds to widen the telephone network in untapped areas, and to boost investment in the sector.
To try to convince the population that the hike plan was beneficial, the state-owned telephone services company, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), launched a television campaign earlier in the year, featuring a farmer in dire need of telephone line to help improve the management of his farm.
The campaign said the hike would establish a new network across untapped rural areas in the archipelago, to help "such farmers."